"Miss, Miss, Hip-Hop!"

The minute my young students walk out of the confines of the classroom they turn into your average 7-13 year old boys. Yes, they are ascetics, yes their lives revolve around an ancient religion, yes they spend hours a day chanting in Tibetan, yes they are Buddhist monks. But take away their plum and gold robes, and these boys would fit right in on any playground at elementary school recess. Surrounding the monstery is a wonderful spread of soft green grass, perfect for playing on and running around on. There are forests surrounding the monastery which are literally infested with hundreds, even thousands or monkeys. After lunch I like to stroll around the monastery grounds, watching the monkeys in the trees, enjoy the view of the Kathmandu valley, and watch the little monks playing. The other day I was walking by the area where the younger ones all congregate to play.
"Meeeees! Meeees! Heeep-hup!!" one of my students, Pasang, a most boisterous 12 year old boy yelled to me. Upon his cue, the entire lot of about 30 little monks, all on the grass, broke out in an extensive collection of hip-hop and breakdance moves. "Hip-hop, hip hop!" Karma was doing the worm on the grass, Pasang doing rap moves which you might see in a Jay-Z video, Kasang on the ground twirling around on his hands swinging his legs in circles under him, Aashish doing back flips, Nima doing front flips, Sang running and jumping over the two rusty barrels on the lawn, all the little ones who are too small to do any flips were doing cartwheels, Rinchen running of a ledge and flipping through the air, his robes bellowing behind him. Everyone else clapping wildly and jumping around the grass, almost dying of laughter. It was quite a spectacle, to say the least. I told told they should all joy a breakdancing troop... although I don't think they really understood what I was saying. "Circus! Circus!" I told them.. Circus is not in their vocabulary yet though, so this didn't register either. These boys are really the most flexible, agile, monkeyish lot I have ever set eyes on. I suppose, if monkhood doesn't work out for them, they can travel around as a troop of breakdancing monks... What an attraction that would be! "Heeeep-houp! Heeep-houp!"